There was some great news this week with Cisco’s announcement that Toronto was one of four cities selected to become one of the company’s global innovation hubs.The project will involve $100 million in investments over ten years, which is on top of the $4 billion that Cisco has already agreed to spend on research and development facilities in Ontario over the same period.

This particular project will be focused on technologies in the “Internet of Everything” sector, which aims to connect all of our devices and appliances to the internet and each other so they can operate more effectively and efficiently.Having a global leader like Cisco with an active presence in our technology sector will hopefully help spur innovation throughout the local tech community as well as investments and acquisitions of emerging companies based here.

Cisco is already a sponsor of OneEleven, an incubator formed by OMERS Ventures and the Ontario Centres of Excellence to support companies developing technologies in data-driven sectors by providing space and assistance with funding, R&D, and commercialization.

Q1 Capital is proud that Toronto is emerging as a hotbed of innovation in the Big Data and Internet of Everything sectors and we remain committed to doing everything we can to assist emerging technology companies – even those at the earliest stages of development – by providing guidance and support for their financing and M&A activities.